“She has to know.” The man said, marching up and down heaven’s steps.
People flowed up towards the gates past him, specters of light and faith. The stairs gently tried to rock him up a step, seamlessly moving him upwards like the pull of the sea tide. But the man frowned and shuffled himself down again, pointing at the disrespecting step with a disapproving waggle of a finger.
“She has to know!” He repeated, moving his hands to his hips like a southern mother.
“Has to know what?” A voice asked, a figure dashing down the stairs.
The child was a little older than ten, bouncing down the steps to look up into his eyes.
“That I didn’t want to leave!” He moaned, pressing his hands into his face and rubbing his eyes with his fingers.
“Leave where?”
“HER!” He cried, slumping down on the step he stood upon.
“Oh,” the girl said, puzzled. But she sat next to the man and smiled brightly up at him, “why’d you go then?”
The man frowned down at her through his hands, sighing and lying on the stairs. People effortlessly glided around the pair, looking down to smile at them. An old woman bent down to run her fingers through the child’s long brown hair, gently brushing the girls cheek before moving on.
“Why so interested anyway?” The man asked the girl, “what’s your name?”
“Aria.”
“She liked that name.”
“Who?”
“Her.”
The girl nodded, “is she nice then?”
The man nodded slowly, “she’s like wildflowers in a rooftop garden – shouldn’t be there, and unusual, but beautiful. She’s like a child’s first icecream, a boys first toy sword. She’s adventure, excitement, spontaneousness that both drives you nuts…” he sighed, looking out beyond the walls of the sunset beyond them, “- and brings you unspeakable joy.”
“Poet, are you?” The girl giggled, hugging her knees.
“Literature teacher actually.”
“Oh – so a failed writer.”
The man turned his head sharply, his frown softening as he watched her lean back and laugh into the atmosphere.
“I like writers,” She said, “they’re like… dreamcatchers for your heart.” She smiled, moving hair out of her eyes, “where’d you meet her?”
“Rollerblading – she didn’t know how to use her breaks. She literally –”
“- fell head over heels for you huh?” The girl butted in, “that’s so cliché.”
“You’re very opinionated for a little girl.” The man grumbled.
Aria shrugged, “guess so. Why’d you leave then?”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“What-”
“-Happened? I’ll tell you Miss Nosey – since you won't leave me alone. I saw some irises she likes. You know, the purple ones with yellow water droplets on the inside. I had been a right bastard all week… it was report writing time, I was stressed. I wanted to get her something to thank her for not breaking up with me. I went to the florist, thanked God above she liked cheap flowers and started talking to a girl.”
The girl rested her chin on her knee, “ah-huh.”
“Don’t ‘ah-huh’ me, I didn’t do anything – but that doesn’t matter now does it! We happened to live on the same block – this girl and me – so we walked together. Innocent. But just as we crossed the street some jackass RAN US OVER!”
“You probably shouldn’t swear so much,” Aria pointed out, “I mean, we are sitting on heaven’s gates and all.”
The man groaned and flung his hands out above his head, “my girl, my fire-cracker, the love of my bloody life probably thinks that I was cheating on her with some stranger and you’re worried about some low-grade SWEARING?!”
Aria grinned behind her hands, “you did it again.”
“AHHHHH!!”
Aria moved to sit next to the poor man, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Tell you what mister, what if I did you a favour?”
“A favour?”
“Sure!”
“What could you do?”
The little girl smiled shyly at him then, “you gotta give me a hug though. A real good one, and then I’ll tell you what I’ll do.”
Uncertainly, he gathered her in his arms, wrapping his hands so they touched his elbows with her in the middle. She snuggled in, curling herself into his lap.
“You’re like a cat,” he mused, surprised how comfortable she seemed to be, “so what’s this favour then?”
“When I go down there, I’ll let her know you didn’t do nothing. That you loved her.”
He looked down at her, “you do know there are billions of people down there.”
“I know.”
“How would you know who she is? How would you find her? How would you get down there to begin with?!”
The little girl was silent for a time, watching the people climb the steps around them. Finally, she raised her head and kissed his cheek, “because, I’m gonna see her real soon daddy.”
Then she burst into light, her blue eyes a match to his.
“Go home daddy.” She whispered, fading into the last of the sunset below them, "she'd want that - especially when she knows you're not a bastard!"
The man sat there for a long while, staring out at the stars below. Finally he stood, turning to join the many spirits around him.671Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPPlOP3xdBA
"You're far too young to know that word." He whispered.
ns 15.158.61.17da2
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